The Crimean government and parliament are completing preparations for the plebiscite scheduled to be held on March 16, leading to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and possible annexation by Russia.Heading the Crimean government and parliament in this effort are two Greater-Russia nationalist... MORE

Moscow’s military intervention in Crimea and the peninsula’s upcoming March 16 referendum on whether to leave Ukraine and join Russia has caused muted official reaction in Central Asia. Nonetheless, Russia’s actions in Ukraine is particularly closely followed across the region. And the Kremlin’s justification for... MORE

Moscow had hoped that the Kazan Tatars would promote the Russian Federation’s agenda in Crimea both by appealing to the Crimean Tatars for calm and by dispelling the latter’s fears about Russia’s intentions. But as in so much of what is now defined as the... MORE

Moscow is preparing to legalize the annexation of Crimea as soon as possible. A special constitutional amendment is being rushed through parliament. To enact a “constitutional law,” all regional legislatures of the Russian Federation must state their opinion, but since all of them are controlled... MORE

Though considered a healthy—albeit developing—democracy (https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/105158; https://www.santmaral.mn/en/publications), Mongolia has in recent years become dominated by the competing interests of its political and business factions, whose collective actions undermine the country’s democratization trends as well as complicate Ulaanbaatar’s foreign policy. For now, Mongolia resides in a... MORE

On March 5, the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, called on the regions of the Russian Federation to support the residents of Crimea and the eastern Ukrainian regions adjacent to Russia. The parliamentarians called on the Russian regional officials to provide... MORE

On February 19, 2014, the Third Session of the Trilateral Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey was held in Ganja (northwest Azerbaijan). After their ministerial—the first trilateral meeting following last year’s presidential elections in Azerbaijan and Georgia—the three sides adopted... MORE

In January 2014, the chairman of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan party, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a well-known politician and leader of ethnic Uzbeks in Afghanistan, made unofficial visits to Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent, the Kazakhstani capital of Astana, and Almaty—Kazakhstan’s largest city. According... MORE

From day one of Russia’s assault on Ukraine (ongoing since February 27), Ukrainian government leaders, politicians and diplomats have continually invoked the 1994 Budapest Memorandum signed by Ukraine, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. That Memorandum is widely believed to provide security “guarantees”... MORE

One unique feature of the still surging crisis in Ukraine is the intensity of high-level communications between the key parties to it—which should have eliminated the possibility of misunderstanding, but apparently has not. Last Friday night (March 7), United States President Barack Obama had yet... MORE